Sponsorship Program

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Thank you to all the generous donors to our annual Sponsorship Drive in May and June! The Greyhound Pet Adoption Northwest Sponsorship program cares for Senior Greyhounds and Special Needs Greyhoundsthat have complicated medical conditions. Because these Greyhounds require extra care, their stay in our foster homes may be longer than most. We accept any Greyhound in need, even if the dog was not originally placed by Greyhound Pet Adoption Northwest. If a senior aged Greyhound does not find an adoptive home, we will care for that dog for the rest of it’s life in a loving foster home. Every Greyhound in our program is treated with love, caring and the best medical attention available. And, this treatment can be expensive.

There are two ways you can help sponsor a Greyhound. You can provide a one-time Sponsorship Donation of support, or you can have a monthly recurring Sponsorship Donation. Even $10 a month helps us with on-going expenses for a sponsored dog for food, housing and medical care. When you click on the blue Sponsor button in the upper left or below, PayPal will give you an option to check for a recurring donation if you wish to choose that option. You can also make a donation by setting up a recurring payment through your bank account. Or you can mail a check for your donation to GPA-NW, PO Box 6524, Portland. OR 97228

Will you help a senior or special needs greyhound today? These dogs need your help right now:

Your sponsorship donations help support these dogs who need on-going special care and a chance for a stable home and love. If you believe every greyhound should know love regardless of age or illness, please donate today.

Batman and Robin are sibling pups who recently arrived from Kansas. At birth Batman and Robin were injured and lost the care of their mother. This brother/sister duo were bottle-fed and raised until they could come to GPA Northwest. As six-month- old pups, their orthopedic injuries are now more pronounced. Batman has a severely dislocated front right elbow and fractured wrist. Robin has a severely dislocated hip which causes her to walk cow hocked. The dislocated femur is actually rubbing on her pelvic bone. Consequently, sweet Robin spends a good deal of time laying down. Batman isn’t letting his disability slow him down and both are cute as sock monkeys.

After consulting with an orthopedic specialist, Robin is being scheduled for a major surgery to remove the ball of the dislocated femur which should relieve her pain and hopefully straighten out her gait somewhat. We are going to give Batman some more time to develop before making a decision on his surgical option. The Dynamic Duo both require expensive medical care to ensure a good future. UPDATE: Robin’s surgery was very successful and she has much better mobility and posture and is moving without pain. The surgery and aftercare at the orthopedic vet was just under $3000.

Marbella is a 2 year old greyhound who arrived earlier this summer from Kansas. She suffers from seizures. That probably ended her short racing career. She had her first one with us August 24th and she was started on Kepra. It was a single seizure. Later she started a cluster of 3 seizures The 3rd in a second cluster of seizures was far worse. It lasted a long time and she was beet red, panting continued heavy for an hour.

She went to the emergency vet and they wanted to keep her about 24 hours with IV seizure meds. She’s now on both Kepra and phenobarbital. They’re both expensive drugs.

Her experienced foster mom is worrying about a brain tumor. She’s very aloof and usually looks as if she’s somewhere else. At other times she’s manic about playing with toys. Her foster family has experienced with seizure dogs and is monitoring her very closely. If she has another episode, or if something else changes we’ll get her an MRI to rule out a brain tumor. An MRI, with our discount is about $1500. 11/23/18 – UPDATE her MRI was negative, so we are looking at adjusting her epilepsy medication further to help her symptoms.

It’s every greyhound owners worst nightmare. 2 year old foster dog Lloyd accidentally got loose at his foster home and bolted down the street. He was injured when he was found shortly after getting loose and taken to the nearest emergency vet hospital. They did xrays and ultrasound and blood work to figure out what happened because no one saw the incident. They found an open fracture in his leg, there was a laceration in the area and he had a lot of road rash and torn pads. It was clear he’d been hit by a car. They kept him overnight to stabilize him and he was transferred to another hospital for orthopedic surgery.

The surgeon found that he was actually missing a piece of bone and that was what caused the laceration on his leg. So, a bone graft was needed to repair his leg. He did very well during surgery and once he was on oral pain meds a couple days later he was transferred to a medical foster home. He needed frequent bandage changes and was on several medications. Lloyd still needs some follow up visits to make a full recovery.

Rest in Peace Rate – Rate left us this week on June 11th. . He succomed to spondylitis, it was causeing pain in his spine and preventing him from having normal movement and quality of life. Rate had alse recently been diagnosed with sarcoma, in addition to his other medical issues. We are very sad for his foster mom Nancy who was very good to him.

This is Rate – Rate was recently returned at age 12 1/2. He has a number of medical issues – he is hypothyroid, and he has an autoimmune illness called Pemphigus. Pemphigus is the general designation for a group of autoimmune skin diseases involving ulceration and crusting of the skin, as well as the formation of fluid-filled sacs and cysts (vesicles), and pus filled lesions (pustules). Some types of pemphiguscan also affect the skin tissue of the gums. Rate will need to receive medications for the rest of his life, and he will need to eat special food. He may need additional treatments as he ages or if we encounter any complications frm his pemphigus. He is on a low dose of prednisone, and that has side effects as well, like frequent urination.

You can see what a nice boy he is from his photo. He is in a foster home and his symptoms are under control. We felt he was not a good candidate to be adopted due to his age and medical issues so he will be cared for as long as he’s with us. His foster mom reports that he is a very happy boy! He loves his squeeky toys. He lives with dogs, cats and even chickens and does well with everyone (including one very bossy chicken names Hannah) . He enjoys going outside and puttering around. He has a wonderful personality and his condition is pretty well controlled at the moment. Maybe you’d consider becoming a sponsor to help a nice old boy like Rate.

This poor boy is Houndy, he recently arrived in a group of dogs from Kansas.

Houndy beforeHoundy with edema

He was in a foster home and his foster mom report he was off 3 days after arriving. He was lethargic and running a temperature. A vet examined him and found a tender area in his lower back and gave pain meds. After a few days of fluctuating temperature, another vet visit, and not getting better, he was sent back to the medical ward. By the time he arrived his temp was 104 and he had a weird swelling in his leg and chest area.

He was taken to another vet where they did a needle aspirate and found what appeared to be abscess fluid so a culture was sent in. He was started on antibiotics and ACA in preparation of surgically draining the abscess. Prior to opening him up the vet requested a chest X-ray to rule out Valley fever, which we did. She then proceeded to ultrasound the lump area to determine where the main pocket of infection was. She was unable to locate a main pocket. What she found was a very large amount of very little pockets with hard tissue all the way around. This was not presenting like a normal abscess. So more needle aspirates were taken in order to get a random sampling of cells which were sent in to cytology. And the decision was made to continue the antibiotics and to wait until the next day for tests to come back to rule out cancer.

That evening when our medical coordinator went to check on him he was crashing. He was barely able to even lift his head. He was take to the e-vet so he could be started on IV fluids and IV antibiotics while we continued to await the cytology.

Cytology came back with a negative for the Alabama rot and no cancer cells were found so the decision was made to have surgery to drain the abscess and attempt to determine what was causing the problem. While surgery was successful in opening the abscess and placing a drain but there was no foreign body found. The vet’s best guess was there was something he ate that fragmented and punctured his esophagus causing penetration into his neck area which then festered over a period of time until it finally blew up.

He is on 2 types of antibiotics as well as anti-inflammatory and pain medication and he has a suction drain. That must be emptied and re-primed every 4-6 hours over the next 5 days. The edema has become quite extreme and has settled mainly into his face. As you can see he is very swollen. His prognosis is good as long as the drain and antibiotice keep working. He goes back to the vet on Friday 9/15. Cytology test have now confirmed Klebsiella pneumoniae, which is a bacteria found in cattle. This means the abcess may have been cause by a beef bone that punctured him from the inside out.

UPDATE: Houndy’s swelling is decreasing in his face and his surgical site continues to drain. We’ll have more information after his Friday vet visit, but he is improving. Now that we know the type of infection his antibiotics were changed to something that works best for that type if infection. Thank you to those who have already donated towards his medical costs.

Meet Freda – she is a one year old pup who will be joining us in early August with the next group of dogs making the journey from Kansas. Freda was a normal healthy dog who, one day ran into either a tree or a fence post while playing out in her run, injuring her front left leg. Due to the nerve damage she sustained, she no longer was able to use her front leg. We had her examined by a vet and it was determined that it was best to amputate her leg as she was causing further damage to her leg by dragging it around. GPA-NW paid for her surgery to help make her more comfortable and adoptable. This is a photo of Freda just 2 days post surgery and as you can see she is recovering well. She is reported to be her happy, goofy self and is getting around very well.

Coordinating with the farm, allowed Freda to have her surgery before the trip to Oregon with her Kansas greyhound buddies. She is currently recuperating on the farm where she was raised until the trip. Please consider a donation to help Freda, we know it takes a bit longer for dogs with injuries like hers to get a new home. Freda and 25 of her Kansas greyhound friends arrived on August 7th. She is a few weeks post-surgery and doing very well. She was not using her injured leg prior to surgery so she is used to getting around on three and is adpating to everything very well.

This is Butters – she is a three year old. She has Pannus, which is an autoimmune disease that effects the eyes. She will need to have eye drops every day for the rest of her life and she will need to stay out of the sun. She can wear doggie sunglasses called doggles or wear a sun visor if she will be outdoors for prolonnged periods.

Butters

Bella Rebecca is an 8 year old brood mom who arrived with 26 other dogs from Kansas at the beginning of August. Bella Rebecca went in for her exam and senior profile. At the time of exam a lump in one of her mammary glands was found. We did a needle aspirate and it was found to be “Adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) – an uncommon form of malignant neoplasm that arises within secretory glands”.

Time is of the essence with this cancer, it spreads rapidly and at this point there have been no additional lumps identified. The proposed plan is to examine her again thoroughly prior to surgery and they will also do chest xrays to confirm there has been no spreading of the cancer.

Additionally the surgeon is very confident in the surgery and outcome as long as there is no metastization. She has had extremely good luck with total removal with no further treatments or occurrence of the cancer. Becca’s prognosis is extremely good and she should live a normal life span as long as there is no metastization. We will keep you posted on her situaiton – she will have surgery the week of August 15th. UPDATE – Becca came through her surgery and spay and no additional signs of cancer were found. She is recovering and on pain meds. She is slowly starting to eat a bit and get better. UPDATE – Becca is in her foster home now and doing well.

Special Needs Greyhounds

Senior Greyhounds

Senior Greyhounds have been there and done that. When their racing careers are over, they make marvelous companions. Unfortunately, there are many senior Greyhounds retired from breeding, abandoned in shelters, or returned by their adopters for various reasons. It is unfair and extremely sad that, at an elderly age when they should be relaxing and enjoying the golden years of their lives, that they are uprooted by no fault of their own. This is why it is Greyhound Pet Adoption Northwest’s policy to accept Greyhounds of all ages and health conditions and place them in homes where they can live out their lives in comfort and with love and care. Due to this policy we have our fair share of seniors constantly, and because we want them to have everything they need to make the best of their golden years we can incur much higher medical and general care expenses. You can help support our seniors by supporting the program with a one time donation or a recurring donation.